False evidence

Chapter 4 Strange Night
I was quite frightened by him, and I subconsciously quickened my pace.

After walking a few steps and hearing no more noise, I turned around and saw that the old beggar had silently followed me, his ugly and dirty face almost touching mine!

I was nearly scared out of my wits and hurriedly ran back, but suddenly I tripped over something and fell flat on my face.

That was a really hard fall; it took me a long time to recover.

"What the hell!"

I cursed and tried to get up, but when I pushed myself up, I felt something sticky. That's when it suddenly dawned on me: how did it suddenly get dark?
It's only past lunchtime. Even if it's cloudy, it shouldn't get dark this quickly. Could it be that his retina has detached?
I tried raising my hand to my eyes and waving it around. Although I couldn't see clearly, I could vaguely make out some outlines, which reassured me a little.

But why did it get dark so quickly?
I wanted to use my phone to light the way, but my palms felt slippery and uncomfortable, so I wiped them on my clothes. I took out my phone, turned on the screen, and was about to turn on the flash when I was suddenly stunned by what I saw.

Using the limited light from the screen, I could see a person lying on the ground in front of me!

I finally know what that slippery stuff was—it was blood!

The man was lying in a pool of blood. I hadn't even gotten up yet when his face turned right in front of mine, less than a foot away!
This is a woman's face, heavily made up, pale with hints of pink and green, giving it an eerie and unsettling appearance.

I forced myself not to scream. In fact, it felt like there was a numb seed stuck in my throat, and I couldn't make a sound at all.

As I shakily got to my feet, I instinctively wanted to see more clearly.

I held up my phone screen and looked at the woman. The more I looked, the more familiar she seemed. It was like I had seen her not long ago—the daughter of that fat woman!
But why would a girl who was originally plain-looking wear such heavy makeup, and... she was also wearing a bright red dress, even her shoes were bright red.

I struggled to my feet and hurriedly backed away, but my foot slipped, and I stumbled and fell backward.

This time, I lost my balance again, but I felt something cold and soft beneath me, like sitting on a wet mat.

This peculiar feeling made my heart plummet once again.

He struggled to his feet and looked back tremblingly. There, sitting on the single sofa, was the same fat woman from before!

She was tied up there, covered in blood, her eyes wide open, but like a dead fish, completely lifeless.

Even more horrifying, there was a bloody, everted wound on both sides of her cheeks, like a child's mouth!
I was completely terrified, but perhaps because things always turn out the opposite way, my first thought was to get out of there.

I struggled to walk, but after only a few steps, my phone screen went black.

Afraid of tripping over the female corpse on the ground again, I took two steps to the side before turning the screen back on.

This time, my blood ran cold.

This time I didn't see any dead bodies, but I saw something even more terrifying than corpses.

I saw a living person... a person completely wrapped in a black raincoat, standing on a chair, as if his face was pressed against the wall, spying on something.

I was certain the other person was alive because he was holding a knife in one hand, blood was still dripping from the knife, and his hand holding the knife was trembling slightly.

I completely lost the ability to think; I just ran out like a madman.

Just as he ran out the door, a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, and in the flash, the ugly face of the old beggar suddenly appeared before him!

……

After the lightning, a thunderous roar followed.

I jolted awake and sat up abruptly.

Only then did I realize that everything that had just happened was a nightmare.

I was on Yang Wudao's bed, and on the table next to me were two leftover steamed buns.

"How could I have such a terrible dream..."

I muttered to myself, no matter how hard I tried to recall, I couldn't remember how I got back into this house after seeing the old beggar at the alley entrance.
He raised his hand and saw that apart from his sweaty palm, there was no blood on it. His heart, which had been hanging in suspense, calmed down a little.

I took out my phone and checked the time; it was almost midnight.

It was late summer, and the sky had been overcast since mid-afternoon. There wasn't a fan in Yang Wudao's room, making it unbearably hot and stuffy. I got out of bed, grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the table, and gulped it down. I glanced up and saw a photo frame on the opposite wall.

Under the dim light of an incandescent bulb, the people in the photo seemed to come alive.

Only Yang Wudao came back to life. All the photos were superimposed into one, and Yang Wudao in the photos kept changing, from when he was seventeen or eighteen years old... to how he looked when I first met him... and he kept making exaggerated faces and winking.

I was already utterly disturbed by this 'crazy old man's' bizarre photos. I thought I was seeing things because of my own thoughts, so I rubbed my eyes hard and went over to get a clearer look.

Suddenly I heard someone talking.

The other person's voice was deep, like a man's, but it was impossible to make out what they were saying. The voice wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it was still very unpleasant to listen to.

After listening carefully, I realized that the sound seemed to be coming from behind the picture frame.

The picture frame was the same as before, and the photo inside hadn't actually changed.

The voice kept babbling on and on, and it was driving me crazy. I tiptoed over and moved a chair over, intending to stand on it, take off the picture frame, and see what was going on.

My fingers had already touched the picture frame when, inexplicably, I suddenly thought of that old beggar.

Just then, another clap of thunder sounded, startling me. Instinctively, I shouted at the top of my lungs:

"Thunder, rain, the little mute is getting married..."

I'm absolutely not crazy. I sing this because the old beggar left such a deep impression on me, and those two simple lines of folk song are just too catchy. Once you hear it, you'll never forget it.

I eventually took the picture frame down, and the instant I did so, I saw a sliver of light flash across the wall.

Seeing this bizarre scene, my heart jumped into my throat.

The house was so old; the walls were peeling from the erosion of time. I saw a hole in the wall, about the size of a thumb, where the light had flashed.

For some reason, seeing the hole in the wall struck a nerve, like a string in my brain being plucked. Almost instinctively, I jumped off the chair and grabbed the spokes on the table.

He climbed back onto the chair and listened carefully. The voices had disappeared, but he could vaguely hear two sounds that sounded like a woman moaning.

The faint sound was quickly drowned out by the sudden sound of rain, but my heart inexplicably jumped into my throat.

Slowly, I peered through the hole in the wall, and suddenly, in the light, I saw an eye appear on the other side of the hole!
The dream I had earlier was still lingering in my mind. When I saw this eye, I suddenly remembered a scene from my dream.

Was what I just saw in my dream the house of the fat woman next door?

If that's the case, there are at least two dead people in the next room right now, and a guy in a raincoat is holding a knife and peeking through a hole in the wall!
Thinking about this, I could no longer distinguish between dreams and reality, and even fell into a semi-mad state. I directly aimed the bicycle spokes at the hole in the wall and shoved it through, while once again loudly singing the song the old beggar had taught me:

"It's thundering...it's raining..."

"what……"

The singing was interrupted by a scream.

My nerves finally snapped, and following that scream, I yelled "Ah!"

Amidst the shouts, I jumped off the chair, took a few steps to the door, opened it, and ran outside.

As soon as I ran out, I was surprised to see that someone else was running out of the house next door.

The man was completely wrapped in a black raincoat, so I couldn't see his face at all. I only saw him wave his hand, and a cold light flew towards me.

I hadn't even gotten my footing yet, and there was no room for me to dodge, so I could only reach out to block.

However, despite having practiced a few moves, he was not a martial arts master and did not possess the magical abilities depicted in the movies.

Fortunately, the other party seemed to also intend to prevent me from going forward, and simply threw the weapon at me haphazardly. I raised my hand, but didn't touch the cold light. Instead, I felt something hit me. I pressed my hand back and found that I had pressed the thing against my chest.

The tentacles felt sticky, and the person in the black raincoat had already seized the opportunity to escape the alleyway...

(End of this chapter)